Law Commons^™

Coronavirus, Telecommuting, And The ‘Employer Convenience’ Rule, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

In this article, Zelinsky criticizes New York’s income tax penalty for nonresident telecommuters, particularly in the context of the coronavirus emergency.

Goodwill Hunting Gone Bad: Tax Law ’S Outmoded Treatment Of Goodwill, Mitchell L. Engler

Articles

Goodwill reflects the positive consumer association with a business. Goodwill thus overlaps with trademarks and other related assets. This close association impedes the separation of goodwill value from such related assets. Difficulties thus arise when the tax law treats goodwill more (or less) favorably than related intangible assets.For instance, the tax law previously denied any depreciation deductions for goodwill. Business buyers thus often allocated their costs away from goodwill and towards related assets like depreciable customer lists. The IRS responded with the initial “goodwill hunting” wave, challenging taxpayers’ low goodwill valuations. Congress addressed this litigious area in 1993 with new, …

Progressive Consumption Taxes, Mitchell L. Engler

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Recent intellectual and political forces have moved the consumption tax to the forefront of tax policy debate. Since traditional flat-rate consumption taxes like the VAT raise serious distributional concerns, tax scholars have responded with innovative progressive consumption taxes. Two such taxes - the Hybrid Approach and the X-tax - were independently analyzed in a recent symposium on fundamental tax reform. These two proposals contain striking similarities. Both would tax individuals at progressive rates on their wages, with a separate tax on consumption less wages. Important differences exist, though, regarding the latter tax. The Hybrid Approach would impose such tax on …

A Progressive Consumption Tax For Individuals: An Alternative Hybrid Approach, Mitchell L. Engler

Articles

Dissatisfaction with the existing income tax has increased in recent years. Practical problems with the income tax base create numerous loopholes, increasingly exploited by well-advised taxpayers. For the most part, these gaps are attributable to the income tax's "realization" requirement, under which taxpayers report gains and losses as "realized" through market transactions. A consumption tax appeals as a response to these significant current loopholes since "realization" loses its significance under a consumption-based tax. The consumption tax's appeal has been further enhanced by the recent and growing recognition of the narrow difference between income and consumption taxes, assuming away practical problems. …

A Missing Piece To The Dividend Puzzle: Agency Costs Of Mutual Funds, Mitchell L. Engler

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No abstract provided.

The Once And Future Property Tax: A Dialogue With My Younger Self, Edward A. Zelinsky

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As I look back on my youth (expansively defined as the first 40 years of my life), everywhere I went, the local real property tax was perceived as both bad and doomed. If I could speak with the brash young law student/graduate student/alderman I once was, he would undoubtedly tell me, with great confidence, that by the beginning of the next century (which then seemed very far away) the property tax would no longer play a role in the system of local public finance.

Alas, he was wrong.

This essay explains why the young man I once was, confident of …

Are Tax "Benefits" For Religious Institutions Constitutionally Dependent On Benefits For Secular Entities?, Edward A. Zelinsky

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The Supreme Court generally conditions tax exemptions, deductions, and exclusions for religious organizations and activities upon the simultaneous extension of such benefits to secular institutions and undertakings. The Court's position flows logically from its acceptance of the premise that tax exemptions, deductions, and exclusions constitute subsidies. However, the "subsidy" label is usually deployed in a conclusory and unconvincing fashion. The First Amendment is best understood as permitting governments to refrain from taxation to accommodate the autonomy of religious actors and activities; hence, tax benefits extended solely to religious institutions should pass constitutional muster as recognition of that autonomy.

For Realization: Income Taxation, Sectoral Accretionism, And The Virtue Of Attainable Virtues, Edward A. Zelinsky

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No abstract provided.

Text, Purpose, Capacity And Albertson's: A Response To Professor Geier, Edward A. Zelinsky

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In a recent issue of the Florida Tar Review, Professor Deborah Geier added yet another chapter to the running commentary on the Albertson's litigation, using that case to demonstrate her theories of statutory purpose and to criticize, in particular, statutory textualism as she conceives of it. Professor Geier correctly identifies the underlying issues in Albertson's-the role of statutory purpose, the differing institutional capacities of the Congress and the courts, fidelity to statutory text-but resolves those issues in ways that prompt me to rebuttal.

While I commend Professor Geier for her effort to explicate many important questions about the Code and …

Use And Abuse Of Section 704(C), Laura Cunningham

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No abstract provided.

The Tax Reform Act Of 1986: A Response To Professor Yorio And His Vision Of The Future Of The Internal Revenue Code, Edward A. Zelinsky

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No abstract provided.